Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Happy Place

I struggled a whole lot with (small spoiler) how much the main characters are being dishonest to their close friends (and each other! and themselves) in the first two thirds or so of the book. The unraveling and the resolution at the end was beautifully done, but I was so so uncomfortable getting through the first part of it with lying being such a linchpin to the plot.

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bringmybooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

you’re either gonna love it or hate it and idk what to tell you

B̷R̷I̷N̷G̷ ✨ 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ✨ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

I honestly & truly don’t think this book is going to be for everyone, and I honestly & truly don’t think all of Emily Henry is for everyone (4 starred her first two, lukewarm on them in retrospect, DNFed Book Lovers, don’t @ me). All of that being said, I honestly & truly loved this book.

(Also, did I finally break down and decide to read this because the MC loves Murder She Wrote? no comment)

There are some books that I think have universal appeal, and others that hit harder because of the life you’ve lived and the experiences you’ve had, and I think that was a huge part of why this hit so well for me. I can totally understand why people would look at this and go “miscommunication trope at it’s finest, yawn” but (as someone who’s not typically a fan of this trope) I felt this was a super realistic portrayal of trying to figure out who you are and what you want as you grow older, especially as you try to do it in a relationship with someone you love who is growing up alongside you.

One of my gripes with some of EH’s work is that it’s too … quippy. Nobody can be “on” 24/7, zinging barbs back and forth with whomever they come across from the moment they open their eyes until the moment they go to bed. Sometimes even the quippiest person just calls their partner and says, “Hey, do we need milk?” without there being a joke attached to it, you know?

That being said, I felt that that the characters in this book were way more realistic, and I actually believed in them, which made it a lot easier to stay invested in the story & in their relationships. It’s got so much heart in the way that growing up in a friend group is described, especially as we start to want different things that don’t align with how our friends or partners are growing up.

tl;dr this one brought me back to EH and I’ll be giving her next one a read!

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lisa_m's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

This book hit me just right. I don't think I'll be able to put into words how I felt when reading this. I absolutely need to reread & annotate it. Emily Henry is such a phenomenal writer and I have loved every single book by her that I've read. She has a way with words and also at capturing human emotions and dynamics so well. Reading this book made me reflect on my own personal life and struggles in ways I didn't really realise before. A clear 5 star read for me!

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k_readingmorenow's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Like the other Emily Henry books I've listened to, I really enjoy the dialogue. It feels very real and the banter is wonderful. I think this books characters were way more self reflective in such a short timespan than might be possible, but the realizations and thought processes felt very real and familiar to me. It does feel pretty psychologically focused, a bit parentally determined, but it was an enjoyable read and definitely pulled at my heartstrings!

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bellebriones's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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taliabasma's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’m unsure how to rate this book. Did it make me *feel*? Yes absolutely. Did it frustrate me to no end? 100%!

As someone in a LDR I think I emotionally connected with the struggles of that experience and ached at the thought of my partner being in the same position as Wyn brought me to actual tears. I think my issue is the lack of communication was painstakingly horrendous and slow and I wanted to yell at both Wyn and Harriet for their silent aching rather than just SAYING what they are thinking fully. Their half statements were infuriating especially when it was happening for the whole of the story.

Henry’s novels read more like literary fiction, I know this and I respect the heck out of it which is why I always read her books but there’s something about them that can leave me unsatisfied unfortunately. I think for this one the main character, though repressed by family trauma, I could deal with her constant lack of communication.

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stardustandrockets's review against another edition

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5.0

I don't understand why people cried reading this book. I will say that I relate a lot to Sabrina's want to not get married because she didn't have good views on it growing up. And I relate a whole heck of a lot to Harriet and her family. My parents got pregnant with my sister before they got married and they were incredibly poor for a long time. Then my brother happened. Six years after that I came along and 3 years after that, my younger sibling. There's a 12 year age gap from oldest to youngest and all that time my dad worked two jobs just to barely make ends meet. My parents fought all the time and I used to wish they'd just get divorced. Though, as a kid, I didn't realize what that would mean for either of them. My dad would be fine (probably), but my mom would have nowhere to go and no job to fall back on. It seemed they were in a marriage of convenience with no real way out. Did they love each other? I'm not sure. I think things started out under shit circumstances and they made the best of what they had. So yeah, I relate a lot to Harriet and what she was going through. Not asking for help when she very much had several people in her corner. Wyn also hit home a bit because of his undiagnosed depression. He didn't realize anything was wrong until it was really wrong. Functioning at less than optimum your whole life, you don't realize that that's not how everyone goes through life. That was me. Being undiagnosed AuDHD and thinking I was just lazy at school work and not realizing I was actually struggling. But I didn't have the words to say "Hey, I really want to do these things, but I can't make my brain do these things."

I think it was a good thing that Harriet and Wyn called things quits for a bit. Wyn was able to find out what makes him happy on his own, Harriet discovered that she wasn't happy on her own and that her job was making her incredibly miserable. But the whole time she wanted Wyn because he was her happy place. That's how I feel about my partner. It doesn't really matter what we're doing, as long as we're together.

So while I may not understand what made people cry, I think I relate the most to this book. Even if it's still not my favorite. On a personal level, this is the one that hits home the most.

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ali_k0's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Everytime I read an Emily Henry book it changes me completely. I always know when I open to the first page I'm about to change, but it's never in the way I expect.

I think most people have a memory of standing alone in their kitchen after a family fight, the silence ringing in their ears after everyone slammed their doors and left you standing, reeling, with the distinct feeling that whatever just happened was your fault, even if you didn't do anything.

Harriet, our FMC and POV character is a neurosurgeon in training who never left the kitchen. Whether it her best friends or family, shes always living for other people, constantly wearing the referee cap. When her boyfriend Wyn (and the man she believed she'd have forever with) breaks up with her in a four minute phonecall, she's back where she was before: alone, unsure, and trying to pick up the pieces.

So when her best friends gather together for one last summer vacation, she fixes her referee cap in hopes to achieve one last perfect summer for the people she loves most. Even if that means pretending to still be engaged to Wyn.

A lot of people laugh at the idea of a romance novel being transformative, but I think Emily Henry has the unique ability to put the missing, broken pieces of us in her books. Over the course of its pages, she unpacks them with the care of a someone who knows their holding a precious thing.

Happy Place clutches the hand of the child in the kitchen and leads them softly away, all while whispering "it's okay to leave, it's okay to move on, other people's joy is not you responsibility."

Happy Place is the end of summer sunset. It's a goodbye and a hello and a i'll see you again. It's the promise of something new around the corner that can be so much better than what you had before if only you let yourself grasp it.

Grab some tea, curl up on couch with a warm blanket, and hop aboard with Pilot Ray to your new Happy Place.

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